There has been quite abit of talk over the last couple of days about a new 3 story building that has just gone up in Taiwan as an exhibition hall.
The interest stems from the fact that it is made from 1.5 million recycled plastic bottles taken from the Taiwanese waste system.

The pavilion, dubbed the EcoARK, includes an amphitheatre, museum space and a screen of falling water collected during rainy periods for air conditioning. The clear plastic containers in the wall allow natural light to flood the cavernous interior.

This is great news for recycling and sustainability but scratch the surface of the story a little more it it gets even more interesting.

The Story of the plastic bottle.

It seems that all plastic bottles are not made the same, nor will just any old plastic bottle do.

The headlines and general thrust of the story state that this building is made up from 1.5 million plastic bottles to raise awareness in recycling - and this is a key word here - recycling. When the reports talk of using 1.5 million plastic bottles taken from the waste stream one immediately thinks of a building made up from 1.5 million 1.5L soft-drink or 1L milk bottles.

This is not the case. Reading the article more carefully it says that the buidling is constructed of 1.5 million reprocessed plastic bottles that have been taken directly from the Taiwanese Waste Stream. What do they mean by reprocessed? Well simple really. The waste bottles are recycled into these cool plastic bottle / bricks that interlock together and create a building material that is light, strong and also transparent.

I did some research and found the website of the manufacturer < http://www.miniwiz.com >.
Great product. On the site it talks about its awesome architectural properties. It is very strong due to it's unique interlocking honeycomb geometry, and great as an insulator due to it's thickness. You can also make it into external curtain walls (as is the case with the Taiwan structure) which allow natural light in. You can even put solar powered LED lights into them to create cool effects.

I love this product! I want to build a house out of them now.
Being plastic they are durable and will last forever. I am sure many of us have stumbled across plastic PET bottles that have washed up on the beach after an unknown time at sea, crossing the oceans at the mercy of the most extreme conditions nature can through at it, and they are still good to use.

The Taiwanese builders state that their building can withstand severe storms and earthquakes. Cool. With all of the stroms and earthquakes happening at the moment this has to be a consideration. Wonder what the resource consent process would be?????